You can RSVP by phone if you like: 312.413.5353. If you RSVP, we’ll save you a seat — and if the venue fills up, you’ll definitely be able to attend! In other words, RSVPs are not required, but they’re in your interest. Please note that we unsave seats at 7PM.

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MARCH 8, 2011: “Margaret Sanger: A Public Nuisance” (1992) + “Jane: An Abortion Service” (1996)
#1: Highlights Margaret Sanger’s pioneering strategies of using media and popular culture to advance the cause of birth control, and discusses some of her early-1900s arrests and trials.
#2: Tells the story of “Jane”, the Chicago-based women’s health group who performed nearly 12,000 safe illegal abortions between 1969 and 1973 with no formal medical training.
+ themes: Activist Sex, Sexual History

APRIL 7, 2011 — THURSDAY: “A Jihad for Love” (2007)
+ This is a special event and will take place on Thursday, April 7 rather than the second Tuesday in April, because the filmmaker is coming into town for a talkback!+ Fourteen centuries after the revelation of the holy Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad, Islam today is the world’s second-largest and fastest-growing religion. Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma travels the many worlds of this dynamic faith, discovering the stories of its most unlikely storytellers: lesbian and gay Muslims. After we screen “A Jihad for Love”, Sharma will talk about his more than a decade of work and experience in countries like Egypt, where he filmed in secret, without government permission, during Hosni Mubarak’s repressive regime.
+ Note that there will also be a brown bag lunch with Parvez Sharma at noon on April 8, on the topic of race and identity.
+ themes: Activist Sex, Sex Everywhere

MAY 10, 2011: “Sister Wife” (2008) + “The Love Bureau” (2009) + “Muslims in Love” (2010)
#1: A fundamentalist Mormon woman in a polygamous marriage explains how she feels about it.
#2: Profiles a modern-day mail order bride service that specializes in matching Eastern European women with Italian men.
#3: Shows devout American Muslim young people pursuing love and marriage, searching for alternatives to arranged marriages common to traditional Muslim culture.
+ themes: Love and Sex, Sex Everywhere

JUNE 14, 2011: “Trans Entities: The Nasty Love of Papi’ and Wil” (2008)A unique, sexy, thought-provoking and above all touching portrait of an interracial, polyamorous, transgender couple. The film involves several personal interviews and three explicit sex scenes: the first with Papi’ and Wil; the second involving an extra partner; and the third an S&M role play scenario.
+ themes: Love and Sex

JULY 12, 2011: “Outrage” (2009)Examines the issues surrounding closeted homosexual politicians and their hypocrisy in voting anti-gay on measures from HIV/AIDS support to hate crime laws — and how they have harmed millions of Americans for many years.
+ themes: Activist Sex, Sexual History

AUGUST 11, 2011 — THURSDAY: “The Canal Street Madam” (2010)+ This is a special event and will take place on Thursday, August 11 rather than Tuesday. It will also take place at the Everleigh Social Club, 939 W. Randolph St., rather than at the Hull-House Museum, because we are partnering with the Sex Workers Outreach Project on their upcoming sex worker film fest!+ “The Canal Street Madam” follows the story of Jeanette Maier, a New Orleans madam whose clientele included a number of powerful, high-ranking politicians. When she was busted by the FBI and torn apart in the press, they escaped censure, so after her trial she set out to fight back against a system that silences the powerless and protects the elite.
+ themes: Activist Sex, Sexual History

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011: “A Place to Live” (2008) + “Carmen’s Place” (2009)
#1: Follows the journey of seven gay senior citizens with limited resources as they attempt to secure a home in Triangle Square, the country’s first affordable housing facility for lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender seniors.
#2: An intimate portrayal of life at a transgender-friendly shelter for teenagers run by an Episcopal priest in Queens, NY.
+ themes: Activist Sex

OCTOBER 11, 2011: “Claiming the Title: Gay Olympics on Trial” (2009) + “Pride Divide” (1997)
#1: Despite the fact that there were countless other organizations that used the term “Olympics” as part of their titles, the National Olympic Committee placed a restraining order on the Gay Games for their use of the word in the 1980s, and took the case from the lower courts all the way to the top.
#2: Through interviews with prominent gays and lesbians, highlights the differences between gays and lesbians and the ways they’re treated within the subculture, and how this threatens to split the movement for civil rights.
+ themes: Activist Sex, Sexual History

NOVEMBER 8, 2011: “The Line” (2009) + “Rape For Who I Am” (2006)
#1: Where is the line defining consent? As the filmmaker unravels her experience with a one-night-stand gone terribly wrong, she decides to confront her attacker.
#2: Offers a fascinating and moving insight into the lives of South Africa’s black lesbians who, raped because of their sexuality, refuse to become victims.
+ themes: Activist Sex, Sex Everywhere

DECEMBER 13, 2011: “American Swing” (2008)A look at Plato’s Retreat in New York, one of the first public clubs for swingers, which opened in 1977 and was closed down by the city government in 1985. Includes reminiscences from celebrities, politicians, and many others who partook in the club’s controversial history.
+ themes: Sexual History

JANUARY 10, 2012: “Our Bodies, Our Minds” (2001)Sex workers and other sex-positive feminists discuss stereotypes and myths about sex work, their actual work experience, labor organizing issues, pros and cons of their profession, legal and censorship issues, their differences with traditional feminists, and how their choice of work affects family relationships.
+ themes: Activist Sex, Love and Sex

FEBRUARY 14, 2012: “The Happy Hooker: Portrait of a Sexual Revolutionary” (2008)In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Xaviera Hollander was New York’s leading madam. In 1971, she published her memoir, which was considered a landmark of sex-positive writing; shortly afterwards, she was deported from the USA.
+ themes: Sexual History

MARCH 13, 2012: “Writer of O” (2003)The 1954 S&M fantasy “Story of O” was an immediate Paris bestseller — and literary scandal. The writer only came out of the closet forty years later, in 1994. This film explores her life and inspiration: ideas of sex and power, submission and freedom, liberation and non-being, all set against 1950s literary Paris and dramatic sequences that bring the infamous book to life.
+ themes: Sexual History, Sex Everywhere

APRIL 10, 2012: “Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin” (2003)During his 60-year career as a Black activist, organizer, and “troublemaker,” Bayard Rustin formulated many of the strategies that propelled the American civil rights movement. But his open homosexuality forced him to remain in the background, marking him again and again as a “brother outsider.”
+ themes: Sexual History, Activist Sex

MAY 8, 2012: “Straightlaced” (2009)Interviews with more than 50 teens from diverse backgrounds unearth how popular pressures around gender and sexuality are confining American teens.
+ themes: Activist Sex

JUNE 12, 2012: “Assume Nothing” (2009)Focusing on the art, photography and performances of six “alternative” gender artists from many cultures — including Maori, Samoan-Japanese, and Pakeha descent — poses the questions: What if “male” and “female” are not the only options? How do other genders express themselves through art?
+ themes: Sex Everywhere

JULY 10, 2012: “Shinjuku Boys” (1995)Introduces three women who live as men and work as hosts at the New Marilyn Club in Tokyo. All three talk about women, sex, transvestitism and lesbianism; alternating with these interviews are fabulous sequences shot inside the Club, patronized almost exclusively by heterosexual women who have become disappointed with “real” men.
+ themes: Sex Everywhere

AUGUST 14, 2012: “(A)sexual” (2011)Facing a sex-obsessed culture, a mountain of stereotypes and misconceptions, and a lack of social or scientific research, asexuals — people who experience no sexual attraction — struggle to claim their identity. The film follows the growth of a community that experiences no sexual attraction.
+ themes: Activist Sex

SEPTEMBER 11, 2012: “Uña y Carne/Nail and Skin” (2008) + “Destiny in Alice” (2007)
#1: Growing up in separate parts of Puerto Rico, two little boys got used to keeping their true feelings hidden; they both felt like girls. As young adults they both moved to New York and big city life introduced them to worlds very far apart, but they found support in each other.
#2: This often hilarious film provides glimpses of how black and white women make, break and sustain love across racial and cultural gaps in Alice Springs, Australia.
+ themes: Sex Everywhere

OCTOBER 9, 2012: “The Fall of Womenland” (2009)Without a formal marriage contract, the matriarchal Mosuo — a small minority situated in the southwest of China — traditionally build relationships based on free love and sexual satisfaction. But can the sexual liberty and power of the Mosuo women survive as modern Chinese society slowly encroaches on their ancestral land?
+ themes: Sex Everywhere

NOVEMBER 13, 2012: “Morality TV and the Loving Jihad” (2007) + “Hollywood Harems” (1999)
#1: Looks outside the frames that weave the frenetic tapestry of Breaking News on India’s news channels to uncover a town’s complex dynamics — the fear of love, the constant scrutiny and control of women’s mobility and sexuality, a history of communal violence and caste brutalization.
#2: Juxtaposing film clips from the 20s through the 60s, 70s, and 80s, explores Hollywood’s portrayal of the exotic East.
+ themes: Sex Everywhere

DECEMBER 11, 2012: “A Good Man” (2009)Willing to try anything to keep his disabled wife out of long-term care, an Australian sheep herder decides to open a brothel. As the camera captures the construction and grand opening of the best little whorehouse in the outback, tension mounts between his plans to keep his family afloat and his wife’s wishes.
+ themes: Sex Everywhere, Love and Sex

5 responses to “The Sex-Positive Documentary Film List: 2011-2012!”

You expressed an interest in books that tell the story of Margaret Sanger, so I am writing to introduce you to my new title that is now available on kindle – which can also be read on a smartphone or pc by downloading a kindle reader (free) from the Amazon site or the apple app store.

What Do Women Want – The Astonishing Story of the Founding of Planned Parenthood and the Marie Stopes Clinics in the Shadow of Dr. Sigmund Freud (CoffeebreakReaders) [Kindle Edition]

Please visit the book’s page on Amazon and you can get a free preview of the first chapters. The story covers her life from age 18 in 1898 until 1923 when she succeeded in opening the first legal birth control clinic in America.

Her story is intermingled with stories of her male and female contemporaries, including Dr. Sigmund Freud, which helps readers appreciate the context and complexities of her battle to bring birth control out of the shadows and into the lives of women worldwide.

Mrs. Sanger’s goal was to end abortion by providing birth control to all women.

This is my second novel about progressive women. My first, “Two Presidential Mistresses and the Privilege of Voting” tells the story of how women won the vote and was very well-received by readers, who enjoyed the stories and the ‘CoffeebreakReaders” format of chronological interconnected short stories.

About Clarisse

On the other hand, I also wrote a different book about the subculture of men who trade tips on how to seduce and manipulate women:

I give great lectures on my favorite topics. I've spoken at a huge variety of places — academic institutions like the University of Chicago; new media conventions like South By Southwest; museums like the Museum of Sex; and lots of others.

I established myself by creating this blog. I don't update the blog much anymore, but you can still read my archives. My best writing is available in my books, anyway.

I've lived in Swaziland, Greece, Chicago, and a lot of other places. I've worked in game design, public health, and bookstores. Now I live in San Francisco, and I make my living with content strategy and user research.